On Thursday, 30th June, Kajetan Kajetanowicz and Jarek Baran – current leaders of the FIA European Rally Championship – commence the competition in 73rd Rally Poland. For Kajetanowicz, three-time winner of this event, this year’s edition of festival of speed in Masuria marks his debut in the World Rally Championship round. The fight for overall victory in the second-fastest event of the whole WRC calendar will be contested by competitors in the strongest WRC cars. The LOTOS Rally Team crew will fight for the best possible result in WRC-2 classification. Most of the drivers in this category use R5 cars – just like Ford Fiesta R5 of the Polish crew.

The organisers of round seven of this year’s World Rally Championship prepared 21 stunningly fast special stages, for which the drivers love Rally Poland so much. In 2015 only the legendary Rally Finland brought higher speeds than the Polish classic. Last year’s winner drove with fully open throttle by no less than 60.3% of the time he needed to complete all Masurian stages. This year the competitors face 306.1 competitive kilometres and 33% of this route is completely new – these gravel roads were not used in two previous editions of the Polish WRC counter (in 2014 and 2015). The biggest challenge awaits the rally cars and drivers on the third day of the rally: on Saturday, 2nd July. On this day the crews will cover the most competitive kilometres – 124.58 kms, including the longest stage of the rally, Stańczyki (25.27 kms) – without a service break between first and second loop. There is only a tyre fitting zone in Gołdap on Saturday.

The fight in 73rd Rally Poland starts on Thursday evening with first of three passages of spectacular Arena Mikołajki superspecial, where two cars run head-to-head and lots of spectators can enjoy direct fight between two crews. On Sunday the competition in Masuria ends with second passage of Sady stage (8.55 kms). This stage finishes at around 12:50 CET and the ceremonial finish takes place at 14:00 CET in Mikołajki, on the main square.

73rd Rally Poland not only marks the first outing of Kajetan Kajetanowicz in the World Rally Championship. Almost whole route of this event is completely new to the reigning European Rally Champion. Just 9% of the stages are on the roads which Kajto knows after his previous starts in Rally Poland – including the one in 2013, where he claimed a spectacular victory in extreme conditions, on wet gravel. However, main rivals of the LOTOS Rally Team in WRC-2 category have some experience from their past outings in Rally Poland. Among 26 crews eligible for WRC-2 points there are Elfyn Evans – factory M-Sport driver with 47 WRC rounds under his belt, Esapekka Lappi – overall winner of Rally Poland 2012 and last year’s WRC-2 winner in Polish WRC counter, and Pontus Tidemand – runner-up to Lappi last season in Mikołajki.

Kajetan Kajetanowicz: – I cannot wait any longer and blood starts to circulate faster in my veins because during our pre-event test I reminded myself how fantastic it is to drive a rally car on Masurian gravel. This is why I literally feel like a cat on hot bricks, waiting for more kilometres behind the steering wheel: even more exciting and pleasant ones – because covered during real, fierce competition. In the European Rally Championship we compete on equally fast stages – or even faster, like in Estonia – but those roads are wider than the tests around Mikołajki. The challenge is therefore demanding and we have to be properly prepared and focused, especially as I have not competed in this event for three years. We have no less than 25 opponents in our category but I am not worried about it – I am happy because strong field makes our World Rally Championship debut even more exciting. We have been working hard with the whole LOTOS Rally Team to get this opportunity and this privilege, so now we will do our best to become an interesting part of the rally spectacle in Masuria.